In the art of commercially vending and dispensing beverages at restaurants, lunch stands and the like, there are two notably different kinds of beverages that are made on the premises, sold and dispensed. One of those kinds of beverages are carbonated beverages, such as root beer and colas that are made by mixing together predetermined portions of beverage concentrate or syrup and carbonated water. The other kind of beverages are noncarbonated fruit punches or ades, such as lemonade that are made by mixing together properly portioned volumes of beverage concentrate or syrup and noncarbonated or plain water.
In the case of carbonated beverages, the syrup and carbonated water are made a serving portion at a time, since those beverages will release gas and go "flat" if made in advance and let to stand. In the case of noncarbonated beverages, it is common practice to make them in substantial multi-serving batches and to display and utilize the pre-made beverages for sales promoting purposes.
In the case of carbonated beverages, the water and syrups are preferably and, in most instances, chilled by suitable refrigeration means before they are combined and mixed together, while in the case of noncarbonated beverages the water the syrups are not chilled before being combined and mixed together. Instead, the finished beverages are chilled by suitable refrigeration means while held in supply, ready to be dispensed.
As a result of the above and other factors that I have not recited, two distinct kinds of beverage making and dispensing apparatus and/or machines are provided by the prior art: one for carbonated beverages and the other for noncarbonated beverages.
In the case of carbonated beverages, the basic apparatus provided by the prior art to make and dispense the beverages includes a carbonated water supply means with refrigeration means to chill the supply of carbonated water and that is suitably pressurized to effect delivery of the carbonated water in and through the apparatus; a syrup supply and a suitable pump or other form of syrup transporting means to deliver syrup downstream through the apparatus; and, a normally closed manually operable duplex mixing and dispensing valve downstream of and connected with the water and syrup supplies and that operates to mix together portioned volumes of water and syrup and to deliver beverage when manually opened. The mixing and dispensing valves are normally elevated so that a serving glass or the like can be positioned beneath them and into which beverage dispensed by them is drained. Such dispensing valves are commonly provided with multi-ported water and syrup nozzles that cause the water and syrup to substantially mix together prior to their being dispensed thereby. The carbonated water and syrup supplies for the above kind of carbonated beverage mixing and dispensing apparatus are generally quite large and unsightly and are hidden from view beneath a serving counter or the like in the establishments in which they are used, while the dispensing valves of such apparatus are, as a general rule, housed within the upper end portions of upwardly projecting decorative columns or "towers" mounted atop the counters. According the water and syrups must be transported a substantial distance from their sources to the dispensing valves.
The principal difficulties and/or problems associated with the above noted kind of carbonated beverage dispensing apparatus resides in the fact that the water and syrup must be properly proportioned to assure making beverages of proper and predetermined strength. In efforts to assure proper proportioning of water and syrup, the prior art utilizes pressure regulators to establish and maintain predetermined pressures on both the water and syrups within the apparatus and utilizes various fixed and/or adjustable flow metering valves and the like throughout the apparatus that must, from time to time, be adjusted and set to assure the making and dispensing of properly finished beverages.
In the case of noncarbonated fruit punches and the like, the prior art provides beverage dispensing machines that are characterized by decorative box-like housings that are intended to be set atop a serving counter or the like in the establishments in which the machines are used; and, transparent beverage supply tanks carried by and projecting up from the housings and in which supplies of finished beverages are held for display purposes and ready to be dispensed. The housings accommodate refrigeration means to chill the beverages in the tanks and accommodate or house beverage circulating means that operate to keep the beverages in the tank circulating for display purposes and so that the water and syrups are not subject to separating. The machines have manually operable dispensing valves that communicate with the bottoms of the supply tanks and through which beverages, within the tanks, are let to drain into awaiting glasses or the like.
The beverage circulating means provided to keep the beverages in the tanks circulating commonly consist of motor-driven magnetic drive coupling parts in the housings of the machines, below flat horizontal bottom walls of the supply tanks of the machines and impellers with magnetic-driven coupling parts in the tanks and rotatably supported atop the bottom walls thereof, above and in driving relationship with the drive coupling parts. While the magnetic coupling means utilized in the art are sufficiently "strong" to drive the impellers enough to keep the beverages worked upon from becoming static and such that separation of the ingredients of the beverages will not occur, they are not so strong that the impellers can be effectively utilized to effect initial mixing together of the water and syrups that are used to make the beverages.
Many thousands of dispensing machines of the general character referred to above are in use today. In the case of a large percentage of those machines, it is necessary and common practice for the users of the machines to mix together the necessary volumes of water and concentrate to make a batch of beverage in separate batch or mixing containers and to pour the beverages made therein into the supply tanks of the machines, as circumstances require. In the case of other beverage dispensing machines, the machines are equipped with various automatic and/or semi-automatic mixing means and/or devices that operate to mix together properly proportioned volumes of water and syrup and to deliver finished, or substantially finished, beverages into the supply tanks of the machines. Many of those automatic or semi-automatic mixing means are made to operate in response to the liquid level of the beverages in the tanks of their related machines and work to maintain the tanks substantially full at all times.
The effectiveness of the various kinds of automatic mixing means for beverage dispensing machines provided by the prior art varies widely. A principal shortcoming that is found to exist in many automatic mixing means resides in the fact that they do not work to thoroughtly and effectively mix together the water and syrup conducted therethrough and instead dump and/or deliver unmixed water and syrup into the tanks of the their related machines. In such cases, the beverage circulating means in the tanks of the machines is utilized to effect and finish mixing all the water and syrups. Due to the inherent inefficiency and/or weakness of most beverage circulating means, it is not infrequent that the machines must be put out of service for unacceptable protracted periods of time to enable the materials to become mixed. The foregoing problem is commonly overcome by the users of such machines resorting to mixing the water and syrups in the tanks of their machines by means of mixing boards and/or paddles.
The most effective and efficient mixing means for beverage dispensing machines that prior art provides are those means which utilize and/or which are characterized by aspirator-atomizer mixing and dispensing devices that are positioned above or within the upper portions of the supply tanks of their related beverage dispensing machines; to which water, under controlled pressure and from remote high pressure water supplies, is delivered and which works to draw metered (properly proportioned) volumes of syrup from remote syrup supplies. The complete mixing of water and syrup in and the delivery of finished beverage from those devices is insured by the atomizing function performed thereby.
The principal shortcoming that exists in the great majority of those aspirator-atomizer mixing devices utilized in beverage dispensing machines resides in the fact that the ability of those devices to draw or lift the syrups worked upon any appreciable distance and yet remain effective to properly meter the syrups has proven to be limited and such that their related syrup supplies must be kept as high and as close to the tops of the supply tanks of the machines as is possible. This materially limits the ability to locate the syrup supplies remote from the machines, where they can be hidden from view.
In the beverage making and dispensing art, the ratio of water and syrup used to establish a properly finished beverage has become standardized at 5:1. The ratio of water and syrup is generally measured by the sugar content of the finished beverage and is commonly called or referred to as the BRIX measurement. If the sugar content is proper, "BRIX" is said to be proper. If the beverage has too much or too little sugar, it is said to be "above BRIX" or "below BRIX."
It is to be noted that in the case of carbonated beverages, the syrups are characteristically and necessarily free of all fibrous and solid materials. While in the noncarbonated fruit flavored beverages and the like, the syrups are often heavily ladened with fruit fibers and solid materials. As a result of the foregoing, those aspirator-atomizer type mixing devices referred to above are exceedingly effective to work upon fiber ladened beverage syrups since they are not subject to being plugged or fouled thereby. On the other hand, the above noted dispensing valves with multi-ported nozzles that are used in carbonated beverage dispensing apparatus cannot freely conduct and are so likely to be fouled or plugged by small traces of fruit fiber or the like that they cannot be satisfactorily used to handle or work upon those many fruit beverage syrups that contain fruit fiber and the like.
Until recently, the manufacturers of beverage syrups sold syrup in quart, half gallon and gallon containers (bottles and cans) that were sufficiently small and light so that they were easy to manually manipulate and, in most instances, not so large that adequate room could not be found to position them in close working position relative to their related beverage dispensing machines.
In the recent past, the manufacturers of beverage syrups have commenced to sell their syrups in large five-gallon "bag-in-a-box" containers at notably reduced cost. Bag-in-a-box containers consist of inexpensive plastic bladders or bags contained within and supported by inexpensive corrugated or pasteboard cartons or boxes. The boxes are vented and the bags therein are provided with fluid fittings accessible at apertures in one side of the boxes. The fluid fittings of bag-in-a-box containers are or include coupling parts designed to connect with mating coupling parts at the inlet ends of elongate syrup or suction hoses provided to conduct the syrups downstream from the containers. The fluid fittings are commonly provided with check valves or equivalent valving means that prevent leaking or spillage of syrup from within the bags and that are only unseated or open when the two mating coupling parts are connected, that is, when the coupling part on a related syrup hose is connected therewith.
In addition to the economic advantages afforded by bag-in-a-box packaging of beverage syrups, such packaging materially extends the shelf life of the syrups since during the period of time when syrups are being dispensed from those packages, the bags collapse within the boxes in a manner that prevents the introduction of air into the bags and resulting oxidation and spoilage of the syrups.
While the great majority of owners and users of noncarbonated beverage dispensing machines of the character referred to above are desirous of buying and using beverage syrups that are sold in bag-in-a-box containers, few can use such containers and gain the advantages afforded thereby because those containers are so large that they cannot be advantageously positioned within effective working distance from their machines.
In the art of carbonated beverage dispensing apparatus, the prior art now provides at least one proportional pump that operates to accurately deliver water and beverage syrup in predetermined ratio, such as five-to-one. That pump is particularly intended and suitable to effectively deliver syrup from a bag-in-a-box container and to deliver it, along with the water delivered thereby to remote locations, at high pressure, where the water the syrup are combined and mixed together to make beverages.
The above noted pump is the subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,332, issued Aug. 4, 1987, for RATIO PUMP AND METHOD. The subject pump is made and sold by SHURFLO in Santa Ana, Calif., and is identified by its manufacturer as the BRIX PROPORTIONING PUMP. That pump is a duplex motor-pump structure characterized by a positive displacement double-acting piston and cylinder water pumping section and a pair of positive displacement piston and cylinder syrup pumping sections. The several cylinders are axially aligned and their related pistons are carried by a single or common rod. The effective cross-sectional area or displacement of the motor section is, for example, five times the effective cross-sectional area or displacement of the pump sections. The pump has water inlet and outlet fittings connected with water supply and delivery lines and has syrup inlet and outlet fittings connected with syrup suction or inlet and syrup delivery hoses. The water supply line connects with a suitable high-pressure water supply for the pump section. The water delivery line receives exhaust water from the pump section, which water is the portioned water delivered by the pump, and extends to a remote duplex mixing and beverage dispensing valve or the like. The suction hose connects with a supply of syrup in a bag-in-a-box container. The delivery hose extends to the duplex mixing and beverage dispensing valve.
The above pump is intended to be intermittently operated and is put into and out of operation by stopping and starting the flow of water to it as by means of the remote mixing and dispensing valve with which it is connected.
A special feature of the proportional pump is the provision of a pressure responsive water shut-off valve at the water inlet side of its motor section. The shut-off valve is responsive to the pressure at the suction or inlet side of the pump sections of the pump and is such that when the supply of syrup in the bag-in-the-box container is exhausted and the bag therein fully collapses, the minus pressure at the syrup inlet side of the pump drops or lowers materially and causes the valve to close. Without the above noted shut-off valve, upon the supply of syrup being exhausted, the pump would continue to deliver water. Further, under such circumstances the valves and seals of the pump section fail and are subject to being irreparably damaged.
Another characteristic of the subject proportional pump resides in the fact that if a minus pressure is applied to the syrup outlet side or fitting of the pump, the valves and/or seals in the pumping section or sections fail to function as intended and syrup is drawn through the pump, upsetting the ratio of water and syrup delivered by it.
There are those in the prior art who have sought to use the above noted proportional pump to intermittently deliver properly portioned volumes of water and syrup into the supply tanks of non-carbonated beverage dispensing machines of the character referred to above. In doing so, the syrup hoses and water lines extending from the pumps are extended to and made to open into the tops of the supply tanks of the machines. While this practice is effective to deliver proper portions of water and syrup into the supply tanks, the ingredients are not mixed and the heavier syrups drop to the bottom of the tanks. Accordingly, the ingredients must be manually mixed together in the tanks or the operators of the machines must temporarily terminate the sale and dispensing of beverages for sufficient and often protracted periods of time to let the beverage circulating means of the machines effect mixing of the ingredients.
In furtherance of the above, float-controlled water shut-off valves have been engaged on the ends of the water lines within the tanks so that the pumps are made to intermittently operate and maintain the supply of liquids in the tanks at predetermined levels.
In an experiment conducted while developing the present invention, I connected an aspirator-atomizer type mixing device with and between the delivery ends of the water delivery line and syrup delivery hose extending from a proportional pump and arranged that device in the top of a syrup supply tank of a beverage dispensing machine with the intent to effect complete mixing of the water and syrup delivered by the pump, before discharging those liquids into the tank. The foregoing proved to be totally ineffective since the minus pressure generated by the aspirator-atomizer mixing device imposed upon the syrup in the syrup delivery hose and at the syrup outlet of the pump worked to draw excessive syrup through the proportional pump and rendered it ineffective for its intended purpose.